Wire treating apparatus



Dec. 1 E. J. M ILVRIED WIRE TREATING APPARATUS 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledAug. 14, 1953 ailiri m m m m BY zww Dec. 20, 1960 E. J. MCILVRIED WIRETREATING APPARATUS 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 14, 1953 A TT'ORN/E X5,

Dec. 20, 1960 J. MGlLVRlED 2,965,368

WIRE TREATING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 14, 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.EDn/M/ MVL 1 3/50 Dec. 20, 1960 E. .1. MOILVRIED WIRE TREATING APPARATUS6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Aug. 14, 1953 I III] III] I/l/ INVENTOR. EDWl/VJ. MWL l R/ED A AWJMJ Dec. "20, 1960 J. MCILVRIED 2,965,368

WIRE TREATING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 14, 1953 sheetsrsheet 5 IN V EN TOR.

0% v ZWI/A QZ Dec. 20, 1960 E. J. MCILVRIED WIRE TREATING APPARATUS 6Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Aug. 14, 1953 INVENTOR. f0W/A/ J. M H. VR/ED BY vf/MM 167 Tara N675 United States WIRE TREATING APPARATUS Edwin J.Mcllvried, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, assignor to "The Vaughn MachineryCompany, gCuyahoga Falls,

Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Aug. 14, 1953, Ser. No. 374,355 1Claim. (Cl. 2 6 -.-3)

The present invention relates generally as indicated to wire treatingapparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus forcontinuously anduniformly heat-treating wire or like elongated material during thecourse of its longitudinal travel, the expression heat treatingincluding annealing, patenting, hardening, tempering, etc., wherein thetemperature of the material is modified, that is increased or decreased,to the temperature of an element over which said material passes indirect, heat exchange contact. i I-ieat treating processes which are nowin use for the heat treatmento'f wire or the like include muilleannealing, continuous lead annealing, tube annealing, old processpatenting, metallic hardehing process, and double lead process. Thepractice of these processes requires employment of large size,elaborate, and expensive equipment; and because certain heating units,such as u l'ufiiefurnaces and tube furnaces, have wire contacting flamesand heating chambers at much higher temperatures than those to which thewire is desired to be heated, it is necessary, not only to closelyregulate the furnace temperatures throughout their lengths, but, inaddition, to closely regulate the lineal speed of the wire in order thatthe time of exposure of the wire in the furnace be constant for accurateheating. A critical factor is lineal speed, since there is, on the onehand, danger of overheating of the material due to decreased speed, andon the other hand, danger of underheating of the material .due toincreased speed.

Likewise, when a molten lead bath is employed for heating or quenchingwire, it becomes necessary to employ eiaborate heat control means inorder to maintain a proper lead temperature throughout the length of thebath. his one principal object of this invention to provide a heattreating apparatus in which wire or like material passed in contact withheating or quenching surfaces for length which, at the desired linealspeed of the material, assures heating or cooling of the material to thetemperature of such surfaces, this length of material beingsubstantially in excess of that actually required so that if the linealspeed increases even ,a substantial amount above the desired value, thewire or like material will not be uhderheated or insufficiently cooled.Because the material temperature is changed to that of the surface, anyreduction in speed of travel of the material, and consequent longerperiod of contact thereof with the heating or quenching surfaces, willnot result in overheating or under-cooling.

Another object is to provide a unitary compartmentalized heating andquenching unit for wire or like material.

Another object is to provide a treating apparatus which has a novel formof burner unit and also combination burner and cooling unit forachieving uniform heating of the surfaces over which the wire is adaptedto pass is. F rte -t f r hs qs rs h s as t e as ma e- Another object isto provide a heat treat'ng apparatus Whisk has a a ler ss s tem o s tiaets erasur 2,965,368 Patented Dec. 20, 1960 ice 2 of the material beingheat treated to the products of combustion of the burner units.

Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus having provisionfor circulation therethrough of a neutral, non-oxidizing, or otherdesired atmosphere to which the material being heat treated is exposed.

Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus in which theperipheral surfaces of internally heated rotary drums constitute theheating or quenching surfaces which are contacted by the wire or othermaterial being heat treated, said material being looped a plurality oftimes around said drums to provide a relatively long length of contactof the material therewith, while yet the apparatus occupies a smallfloor space as compared with the usual form of muflie furnace, tubeannealing furnace, molten lead bath, and like apparatuses which arepresently used for this purpose.

Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus wherein the drumsaforesaid, when employed for raising the temperature of the materiallooped therearound, are tapered so as to compensate for lineal expansionof the material during heating thereof. Similarly, when the drums areused for quenching purposes, they are tapered so as to compensate forlineal contraction of the material during quenching thereof.

Another object is to provide heat treating rotary drums which are formedwith peripheral annular grooves thereabout in which the material islooped a plurality of times from one drum to an adjacent drum, thegrooves of said adjacent drums being staggered relative .to one anotherand so dimensioned that the material may be so looped with a minimum ofrubbing contact between the material and the'sides of such grooves.Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus in which heatingand quenching drums are para llel and axially off-set relative to eachother, the material being heat treated being wrapped a plurality oftimesaround the heating drum or drums from one end toward the otherand'thence around the quenching drum or drums from one end to the otherof the latter, the material passing substantially straight across fromthe other end of a heating drum to such one end of a quenching drum.

Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus in which the endsof the rotary drum or drums have one end thereof unobstructed so thatWire may be looped therearound a plurality of times while the drums arein heated condition. l

Another object is to provide a heat treating apparatus in which theheating (or quenching) surfaces are enclosed within a controlledtemperature atmosphere and which, in the case of a combination heatingand quenching apparatus, is provided with a partition through which thewire passes from one chamber to the other.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention,then, cornprises the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claim, the following description and theannexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrativeembodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but afew of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may beemployed.

In said annexed drawings:

Fig. l is a front elevation view showing in dotted lines a top pair ofheating drums and a bottom pair of quenching drums, over which drumswire or like material is adapted to pass in figure 8 form as shown;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of the apparatus as viewed frum thelefthand side of Fig. i

Fig. 3 is a cross-section view, on somewhat enlarged scale, takensubstantially along the line 3-3, Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a cross-section view taken substantially along the line 44,Fig. 3;

Fig. is a rear elevation view of the apparatus, partly in cross-sectionto show the mechanism for driving the drums;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged view of adjacent drums to show thestaggered relation of the peripheral annular grooves around the drums,and to show the preferred shape of the grooves; and

Fig. 7 is a schematic wiring and piping diagram for achieving uniformcontrol of drum temperatures, for exhausting the products of combustionof the drum burner units, for circulating coolant within the quenchingdrums, and for circulating a desired atmosphere in the heating andquenching chambers.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, the heat treatingapparatus therein illustrated comprises a combination heating andquenching unit 1 mounted on a base 2, said unit 1 including a rear ormain part 3 which has an inclined front wall 4 and a cover part 5 which,as best shown in Fig. 2, is swingably mounted on said main part 3 bymeans of links 6 and 7 pivoted to said cover part 5 at opposite sidesand to said main part 3. An actuating cylinder 8 is pivotally connectedat its ends to said cover part 5 and said base 2 so that when saidcylinder 8 is extended, said cover part 5 will be swung to the dottedline position as shown in Fig. 2, and when said cylinder 8 iscontracted, said cover part 5 will be drawn tightly against the gasket 9which is disposed between said front wall 4 of said main part and therear wall of said cover part.

Said main and cover parts 3 and 5 are preferably in the form of castmetal shells lined with refractory material and define therebetween, onopposite sides of partition 10. two separate chambers, vis. a heatingchamber 11 and a quenching chamber 12.

The parting line between said main and cover parts 3 and 5 is preferablyinclined as shown so as to provide heating and quenching chambers 11 and12 which are axially offset with respect to each other as best shown inFig. 3, and to provide for convenient access to the rotary drums in therespective chambers as will hereinafter be described in greater detail.

The rear wall 14 of said main part 3 has openings therethrough, throughwhich internally cooled drive shafts 15 and 16 project into therespective chambers 11 and 12, said drive shafts being journalled in thebearing housings 17 and 18 which are mounted on a main drive base 19.

Each drive shaft 15 and 16 has secured adjacent its rear end portion aworm wheel 20 driven by a worm 21 in mesh therewith. The worm shaft 23for driving the upper pair of drive shafts 15 is driven directly by theelectric drive motor 24 and the worm shaft 25 for driving the lower pairof drive shafts 16 is driven through gearing 26.

Mounted on the front end of each of the upper drive shafts 15 is ahollow drum which is closed at its front end and open at its rear end,and which has, for example, 72 annular grooves 31 therearound, whichgrooves, for handling up to .150 diameter wire for example, are .150 ormore in depth, and have .075" radius bottoms and slightly tapered sidesas best shown in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 6, the grooves 31 of adjacentdrums 30 are staggered to minimize and equalize the angle of the Wire Was it passes back and forth from a groove of one drum over to a grooveof the other drum. In the heating of steel wire for patenting thereof,that is, heating to approximately 1750" F., it has been found desirableto taper said drums 30 not only to compensate for lineal expansion butto additionally stretch the Wire W after it reaches drum temperature.The figure 8 loops of wire W are thus maintained tight about said drums30 during the heating operation and after.

In this particular structure, the drums 30 are of 32" diameter, andusually it will not be necessary to wrap the wire around the entire 72grooves in each drum, but instead to skip several grooves between eachloop, that is, to provide only some 20 to 30 wraps instead of 72, thecross-section shapes of the grooves 31 being such as to permit suchskipping without undue rubbing of the wire W against the sides of thegrooves. At the present time, there is no need for pulling the wire Wthrough the heating and quenching unit at the rate of several thousandfeet/min. as could be done if the wire were wrapped around all or mostof the 72 grooves.

Mounted on the free end of each of the lower pair of drive shafts 16 isa quenching drum 32 which, except for opposite taper, is generally thesame as the drums 30 just described, and therefore repetition of thestructure thereof is not deemed necessary.

As shown in Fig. 4, the cover part 5 is formed with an angularlydisposed slot 34 (open at the main part-cover part parting line) throughwhich the wire W passes from the righthand heating drum 30 to thelefthand quenching drum 32. Also, as shown in said Fig. 4, the Wire Wenters the heating chamber 11 from the left through a slot 35 in coverpart 5 and passes a part-turn clockwise around the lefthand heating drum30, counter-clockwise around a groove of the righthand heating drum 30,counter-clockwise around a groove of the lefthand drum, and similarlyback and forth a desired number of times between the two drums in figure8 fashion. The wire W similarly passes around the two quenching drums 32in figure 8 form, and is drawn off the righthand drum through the slot36 at the lower righthand portion of the cover part 5.

The quenching drums 32, in the case of the patenting of steel wire W,are maintained at a temperature of 1000 F. In other words the wire W,heated to approximately 1750 F. in passing around the drums 30 in theheating chamber 11, is quenched to 1000 F. when passing around the drums32 in the quenching chamber 12. As in the case of the heating drums 30,the taper of said quenching drums continues even though the wire W hasbeen cooled to 1000 F. (or to whatever temperature the quenching drumsare maintained at) prior to reaching the ends of said drums 32, butbecause the wrapping or looping of the wire W is done while thequenching drums are in heated condition, the wire W will, nevertheless,remain tight about said drums 32. Stated in another way, the wire Wwhile being wrapped around the drums 32 heated to approximately 1000 F.when originally preparing the apparatus for operation, is heated fromroom temperature to approximately drum temperature, and therefore nolooseness will develop nor will the wire jump from the grooves when theapparatus is set in actual operation with wire at 1700 F. coming intocontact with the drums maintained at 1000 F. Furthermore, the relativespeeds of drive shafts 15 and 16 are such that stretching of the wire Woccurs when passing around drums 32.

It is to be understood that the foregoing references to actualtemperatures are merely illustrative for the patenting of steel wire,and obviously the temperatures will be varied for annealing or otherheat treatments of steel, copper, or other wire materials.

Surrounding the openings through which the upper drive shafts 15 extendinto the heating chamber 11 are a pair of combination units 40 whichprovide a header 41 for burner gas mixture, a recuperator chamber 42 inheat exchange relation with the products of combustion from said burnergas, and annular exhaust duct 43 which removes the burned gases fromwithin the drums 30 and which maintains a circulation of the heatednon-oxidizing, neutral, or other atmosphere in the heating chamber 11.

Gas-air mixture is supplied to the header 41 as through the pipe 45 andconnected to said header are four series of eight burner jets 46 whichdirect flames against the interior wall of the surrounding drum 30. Thecarrier 47 for said series of burner jets 46 is of refractory mat'erialand has a stainless steel casing 48 therearound,

The annular exhaust 43 is, as shown, disposed in communication with theopen end of each drum 30, and there is further a small annular gapbetween the open end of each drum 30 and the opening in the main part 3whereby upon connection of the exhaust 43 to a duct 49 (which leads toan exhaust fan 50) the burned gases will be withdrawn from within therespective drums 30, and gas will be drawn out of chamber 11 so as tomaintain a flow of the desired atmosphere from pipe 51, throughrecuperator 42, and through pipe 52 into chamber 11 and also intochamber 12.

As shown, the gases exhausted from within said drums 30 and from thechamber 11 flow through the conduits 53, 54, and 55 to the intake of theaforesaid exhaust fan 50 which is driven as by the electric motor 56 andthence are discharged into a flue 57. In the conduit 53 is a butterflyor damper 58 which is preferably manually operated or adjusted toregulate the amount of atmos pheric air bled in with the gases thusexhausted from within the drums 30 and from the heating chamber 11, andof course another damper 59 is provided to regulate the rate of flow ofgas into the main line 5455 which leads to the fan intake. The secondmentioned dampers 59 are best shown in the schematic diagram, Fig. 7.

The recuperator 42 is in the form of a header which is in heat exchangerelation with the annular exhaust 43 so that the nonoxidizing, neutral,or other atmosphere from a suitable converter .60 (see Fig. 7) is heatedbefore being introduced into the heating chamber 11 through the pipe 52.The heated gas thus introduced intothe heating chamber 11 is aprotective atmosphere which prevents oxidation or other harmful effectson the highly heated wire W and drums 30.

As best shown in the schematic diagram, Fig. 7, the heating chamber 11is provided with radiation pyrometers 65 which are directed at the endportions of the respec' tive drums and are operatively connected withtemperature controllers 67 which in turn operate relays 68 for thecontrol units 69 of the gas valves 70. Air and burner gas are introducedinto mixer 71, and from said mixer, the gas-air mixture passes throughthe gas valve 70 at a rate of flow as determined by the temperatures ofthe respective drums 30, each heating drum 30 being separatelycontrolled through its associated pyrometer ,65, temperature controller67, relay 68, gas valve operator 69, and gas valve 70.

Also disposed in the heating chamber 11 is a static pressure controller75 which controls an operator 76 for damper 77 to control the rate offlow of the protective atmosphere through said heating chamber 11, thedamper 77 being located in the conduit 54-55 which leads to the intakeof fan 50.

With reference to the combination units 79 which surround the driveshafts 16 adjacent the rear ends of the quenching drums 32, these toohave headers (like 41) for supplying, through pipe 80, burner gasmixture for supplying two series of burner jets 46, exhaust annuli 43arranged similarly to those in the heating chamber 11, including dampers58 and 59 and a duct 81 connected to the main exhaust conduit 54-55which leads to the intake of the exhaust fan 50. In addition, thesecombination units each have a header 82 for cooling air, which headercommunicates with four series of air jets 83 for directing the coolingair against the interior Wall of the quenching drums 32, such coolingair being supplied to said header through the duct 84 which leads from acooling air blower 85 and a damper 86 is provided in each cooling airduct 84 controlled by the unit 87, relay 88, temperature controller 89,and radiation pyrometer 90. In this case, the relays 88 operated by thetemperature controllers 89 serve not only to regulate the dampers 86 inthe cooling air supply ducts 84, but as well, the gas valve operators 69and gas valves 70. The dampers 58 are automatically oprated by the units91 which are responsive to, relays 88, and in this way atmospheric airbled into ducts 81 is cut off when there is demand for cooling air toreduce the temperature of quenching drums 32.

Also, as shown in the schematic diagram, Fig. 7, is the coolant watersupply 95 for circulation of water through the interior of the driveshafts 15 and 16, there being an auLQmatic water valve 96 which openswhen the gasair mixture controller 71 is started; and as the water isdischarged from the shafts 1 5 and 16, the valve 97 is opened or closedaccording to the temperature as indicated by the water temperaturecontrol 98 in the discharge. There is also included in the water supplyline 95, a pressure control valve 99 which prevents operation ofthcbu-rners 46 unless there is sufficient waterpre'ssure to open saidpressure control valve 99. This mechanism therefore assures that theapparatus can not be operated unless proper Water supply for cooling thedrive shafts 15 and 16 is available. A visual water drain 100 isprovided.

Having thus described the structure of a preferred em bodiment of thepresent invention, reference will now be made to the operation thereof.Following is an outline of the steps in the operation with specialreference to the schematic diagram of Fig. 7. l

(1) Before stringing up the apparatus with the Wire W to be heattreated, it is usually brought up to operating temperature. Thestartingcan be made responsive to a single control, but whether sostarted or by separate controls or switches is a matter of indifference.When separate controls are employed, these should be arranged so thatthe drum drive motor 24 is first energized before the air-gas mixturecontroller 71 is turned on to supply combustible mixture to the burnerjets 46 through gas valves 70, said controller 71, as aforesaid, beingcoupled to the water pressure control valve 99 and the automatic watervalve 96 so that Water must flow through the drive shafts 15 and 16beforethe burners 46 can be supplied with the air-gas mixture.

(2) The exhaust fan 50, cooling air blower 85, and protective atmosphereconverter 69 are then energized, and appropriate adjustments are made inthe manually operated dampers 58 and 59 and in the temperaturecontrollers 67 and 89.

(3) During the warm-up period, the heating chamber control systemscomposed of elements .65, 67, 68, and .69 maintain the gas valves 70 inopen position, and the quenching chamber control systems composed ofelements 88, 89, and 90 maintain the gas valves 70 in open positionthrough elements 69, maintain the dampers 58 in closed position throughelements 91, and maintain the dampers 86 in the cooling air ducts 84 inopen position through elements 87.

(4) After the apparatus has reached. operating temperature, viz. 1750 F.in the heating chamber 11 and l0OO F. in the quenching chamber 12 forthe patenting of steel wire, the actuating cylinder 8 is extended toraise the cover part 5 to the dotted line position of Fig. 2 whereuponwire W may now be looped (preferably in figure 8 form) a desired numberof times around the heating drums 30 and thence similarly around thequenching drums 32 whereupon the cylinder 8 is contracted to swing thecover part 5 to closed position, the slots 34, 35, and 36 therein beingopen at the parting line between said cover part 5 and the main part 3.

(5) The Wire W is then continuously pulled from the slot 36 of thequenching chamber 12 for coiling or subsequent drawing or otheroperations, and such travel of the Wire W around the drums 30 and 32 incontact therewith elfects continuous, uniform heat treatment of thewire, the wire being first heated to the temperature of drums 30 andthen quenched to the temperature of drums 32.

As evident, two 32" diameter heating drums 30 and two 32" diameterquenching drums 32, each provided with 72 grooves, can accommodate morethan 1000 feet of ,wire W in contact with the drums in the heating andquenching chambers and therefore even at a lineal wire speed of 5000ft./min., for example, which is greater than can be conveniently handledwith existing reeling or drawing equipment, the wire W contacts theheating drums 30 and the quenching drums 32 for a period of 12 seconds,and of course the wire temperature is increased or decreased to drumtemperature in a much shorter period of time, especially small size wireup to .150 diameter.

The stringing of the wire W around the tapered heating drums 30 and theoppositely tapered quenching drums 32 maintains, as aforesaid, the wireW in tight condition around the peripheral grooves of said drums to thusestablish efficient heat exchange between the drums and the wire. Thetapering of the drums also stretches the wire to some degree to improveits physical properties.

In tests conducted with 12" diameter drums heated to 1740 F. and 1000 F.respectively, for patenting steel wire of .043" diameter, the physicalproperties of the finished .0092" diameter wire were substantiallyidentical at all lineal speeds of the wire between 100 and 720 ft./min.For example, with 25 wraps of the .043 diameter wire around the heatingdrums, there was approximately 174 feet of wire in the furnace and 118feet of the wire in contact with the heating drums, and similarly forquenching there was 174 feet of wire in the quenching chamber and 118feet of wire in contact around the quenching drums. Following is a chartof the tensile and torsion strengths of the .0092" diameter finishedwire made from .043 diameter wire which was heat treated at thedesignated lineal speeds as appearing in the first column of the chart.

Substantially identical results were obtained at lineal speeds severaltimes greater than-indicated in the chart above.

The present application is a continuation-in-part of my copendingapplication Ser. No. 239,493 filed July 31, 1951, now abandoned.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed,change being made as regards the details described, provided thefeatures stated in the following claim, or the equivalent of such, beemployed;

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

Apparatus for changing the temperature of a longitudinally travellingwire and the like, comprising a rotary drum with which the wire travelsin heat exchange contact, and which is disposed so that when rotatedsuccessive longitudinal portions of the wire are thus brought intocontact with said drum, means inside said drum for maintaining the sameat a prescribed temperature to which it is desired to change thetemperature of the wire as it travels in contact with said drum, drivemeans effective to rotate said drum at a speed which is not greater thanthat required to change the temperature of successive drum-contactingportions of the wire to such prescribed temperature, means forming achamber about said drum, means for introducing a protective atmospherefor the wire and for the exterior of said drum, such chamber having anopening through which said drum extends into the chamber and with whichopening said drum defines an annular gap, and exhaust means incommunication with such gap for maintaining circulation of suchprotective atmosphere through such chamber and around the wire and drumtherein.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 70,881Monk Nov. 12, 1867 1,732,244 Salzman Oct. 22, 1929 1,971,666 WebsterAug. 28, 1934 2,019,555 Wood et al. Nov. 5, 1935 2,189,836 Schon Feb.13, 1940 2,281,406 Bergmann Apr. 28, 1942 2,283,798 Delano May 19, 19422,293,982 Jackson Aug. 25, 1942 2,319,302 Cook May 18, 1943 2,585,277Seabold Feb. 12, 1952 2,622,182 Forsley et a1. Dec. 16, 1952

